ARTICLES ABOUT MADALYN MURRAY O HAIR BY DATE - PAGE 2

"We shoot all prisoners here. There is no Geneva Convention on Capitol Hill." --Rep. Mike Parker (R-Miss.), on the bitter partisan atmosphere in Congress. "There's nothing that changes people's moral outlook like money." --Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, who agreed to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars to four women for their stories about their affairs with Rep. Robert Livingston (R-La.), prompting him to announce his resignation on the eve of becoming Speaker of the House.

The secrets and innermost thoughts of America's most famous atheist are for sale. Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who founded American Atheists Inc. in the 1960s and vanished in 1995, left a stack of diaries that will be auctioned next month to satisfy a claim against her estate brought by the IRS. The handwritten diaries begin in 1953 and end just seven weeks before O'Hair disappeared along with her son Jon Garth Murray and granddaughter, Robin Murray-O'Hair....

When atheist leader Madalyn Murray O'Hair, her son and adopted daughter disappeared in 1995, they left behind almost $100,000 in gold coins, the San Antonio Express-News reported Sunday. The existence of the coins was made public when the Internal Revenue Service published a legal notice stating it had seized Canadian Maple Leaf coins being held by San Antonio rare coin dealer Cory Ticknor. The coins were being held for Jon Murray, O'Hair's son, and add another puzzle to the question of what happened to the three.

An IRS auction of missing atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair's possessions was called off after federal bankruptcy proceedings were filed on her behalf. The Internal Revenue Service had scheduled the auction for Saturday to try to collect $263,000 O'Hair owes in unpaid taxes. Lawyer Joseph Martinec, representing O'Hair's estate, said the court filing Friday was late because receivers for the belongings of O'Hair, her son John and granddaughter Robin, had been appointed only last week.

The Internal Revenue Service on Tuesday seized the $231,000 Austin home of Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who disappeared in August 1995. O'Hair, who won the landmark 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision calling for an end to school prayer, owes $250,000 in back taxes, an IRS spokesman said. IRS agents removed furniture and personal property from the home and evicted Spike Tyson, a member of O'Hair's non-profit American Atheists Inc., who has been living in the house. O'Hair, her granddaughter, Robin Murray-O'Hair, and son, Jon Murray, disappeared after telling associates they were headed to New York to protest the visit of Pope John Paul II. A note was left on the organization's door telling the staff they had been laid off. The family dogs were dropped off at a boarding kennel where family members said they would pick them up later.

The estranged son of atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair wants police to unravel her mysterious disappearance. O'Hair, whose lawsuit led to the landmark 1963 Supreme Court decision outlawing public school prayer, was last seen more than a year ago when she told friends she was going to New York City to picket the pope's appearance. Her disappearance gave rise to rumors she died and her followers kept it quiet because they feared Christians would claim she found God on her deathbed.

"I am arrogant, but not in the way I treat people. I just view the great bulk of humanity as incompetent." --Former Los Angeles prosecutor Vincent Bugliosi, whose new book argues that Marcia Clark and Christopher Darden bungled the O.J. Simpson case, on criticism of his abrasive personality. "Who knows? Maybe she was taken bodily into heaven." --Ron Barrier, spokesman for the American Atheist organization, on founder Madalyn Murray O'Hair, who has been missing for more than a year.

Madalyn Murray O'Hair, the woman who filed the lawsuit that led to the ban on school-sponsored prayer, hasn't been seen in public for weeks, giving rise to rumors that she died and that her followers are keeping it quiet so Christians don't pray over her. A note was left at her Austin headquarters, American Atheists Inc., telling employees the offices would be closed until further notice. The building is up for sale, and the normally accessible O'Hair hasn't returned telephone calls.

Dear Landers: Do you have any idea how many people you insult on a daily basis with your Judeo/Christian-based "problem solving"? There are thousands of specialists in this country who help people with problems-psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers, as well as government and private agencies. So why do you insist on telling your readers to consult ministers, priests and rabbis? When you dole out such advice, you are insulting 10 percent of the population. A survey 13 months in the making revealed that more than 23 million Americans are, by their own admission, atheists.

The death of James Hervey Johnson extinguished a lonely voice of bigotry and paranoia, but it touched off a complicated court battle for control of his $22 million fortune, the outcome of which may have broad implications for the financial well-being of organized atheism in America. A lawsuit has been brought by, among others, the grande dame of American atheism, 70-year-old Madalyn Murray O`Hair, whose longstanding feud with atheist Johnson was heightened further when, before his death, he named a church-going Episcopalian as executor of his estate.